And here are the 16 films from the Middle East and Africa.
I've been travelling a lot the last few weeks and haven't been able to see as many of the screeners as I had hoped. I've seen the four films marked in yellow (Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Uganda) and plan to see Jordan’s “Farha” on Netflix later this week.
Number of Eligible Countries: 15
from the Middle East/Arab World and 20 from sub-Saharan Africa, including
debutante UGANDA.
Number of Countries Participating this year: 16
(More statistics below)
FRONTRUNNERS:
1. JORDAN- “Farha” (Letterboxd: 3.4)
2. IRAN- “World War III” (Letterboxd: 3.5)
Iran has been shortlisted three times
in the past six years, and they’ll be looking to make it four with the
acclaimed Venice drama “World War III”, about a poor laborer who ends up as an
extra in an Iranian film about Hitler and the Second World War. One user
comment says “the film is so absurd, complex and simple at the same time. It's
very hard to describe.” Sounds awesome. Reviews say the film is rather brilliant in the first half before losing its
way a bit in the second. It’s one of the films I most want to see….but will it be
too odd to make the finals?
“Farha” has a simpler story, following
a young girl who witnesses the atrocities of the 1948 Nakba from a hiding place
in her house. With the film on Netflix and the committee previously showing
interest in films about the Palestinian cause (“Paradise Now”,
“Omar”), “Farha” could definitely compete for a spot on the list. I’ve been
trying to sit down to see it the past few days but need to get this blog
published before Sunday!
DARK HORSES:
3. MOROCCO- “The Blue Caftan” (Letterboxd: 3.8)
4. ISRAEL- “Cinema Sabaya” (Letterboxd: 3.7)
5. IRAQ- “The Exam” (Letterboxd: 3.4)
Let’s take a look at these three dark horses:
In A Nutshell: A Kurdish
woman in an unhappy marriage tries to help her younger sister avoid the same
fate by cheating on an exam.
Pros: It’s a
compelling- and occasionally thrilling- little story. These moral dilemma
dramas- where good people do very bad things- are among my favorites. Acting
and directing are top-notch, and you really aren’t sure which way the ending
will go.
Cons: It’s such a
quiet, little film…I think it would have done better under the old system where
you give the film a numerical rating rather than the new system where you have
the pick the film as one of your Top 15.
In A Nutshell: Four
Arab Israeli and four Jewish Israeli women ranging in age from 25 to 75 get to
know each other during a municipal workshop on filmmaking.
Pros: It’s a
charming film with a documentary feel, and it has quite a lot of interesting things to say about Jewish-Arab
relations in 2022 Israel. The nine main characters feel distinct (only the
youngest, Nahed, could have used a little more work). The standout- Joanna
Said- won a well-deserved Ophir for her film debut.
Cons: The committee
rarely (if ever) chooses such wholly female-dominated films. Possibly too
“small” to compete?
In A Nutshell: A
closeted married man falls for his new apprentice in conservative Morocco.
Pros: Critics
reviews have been very strong.
Cons: Some
complain the film is too slow-paced, though that’s not necessarily a problem for
Oscar. Its main problem is competition from “Joyland”, another popular LGBT
story from the Islamic world. Due to the new voting procedures asking voters to
name their “Top 15”, I fear voters may decide either “Joyland” or “Caftan” but not both.
MIDDLE OF THE PACK:
6. ALGERIA- “Nos frangins” (Letterboxd: 3.3) It would be foolish to count out Rachid Bouchareb, who has been nominated in this category three times...The Academy loves him (he's a good director, but I wouldn't have nominated any of these films)....However, "Nos frangins" (Our Brothers"), a drama based on the story of a young French-Algerian man killed by police during student protests in France hasn't gotten much attention since its Cannes debut. Having said that, police brutality/violence is a hot topic in the USA, and we may be underestimating it.
7. PALESTINE- “Mediterranean Fever” (Letterboxd: 3.4) Winner of Best Screenplay in Cannes, this dark buddy comedy about friendship and depression is another film that will likely do well, but doesn’t have the buzz or passionate support to vault it to the top of the list.
8. LEBANON- Memory Box” (Letterboxd: 3.4) Like "Beanpole" a few years ago, this is one of the best films that I just couldn't get into...and I think that Oscar voters may have the same problem. This is a deeply personal story about a Lebanese woman in Canada who receives a box of diaries, letters and photos on Christmas day. The woman sent them to her best friend in France as a teenager in the 1980s, to document her life during the Lebanese civil war… They bring back a series of happy, sad and deeply personal memories. Her mother wants to hide the box; her daughter wants to read them to learn about her mysterious mother's youth. The most interesting thing about the film is that the letters and tapes are based on real ones sent by director Joanna Hadjthomas in her own youth. This is not always an easy film to watch and it will resonate most with those who know something about the Lebanese civil war (probably not Oscar voters), where Lebanon’s young middle and upper-class partied while the city was being bombed. However, the Oscar-worthy editing could resonate if by chance there are a lot of film editors on the selection committee. This film will do well, though probably not good enough to make the Final 15.
9. SENEGAL- “Xalé” (Letterboxd: 3.4) Variety says "Xalé" blends "melodrama and storytelling" and the film is sub-Saharan Africa's best shot at the shortlist this year. A teenage girl watches on as a doomed marriage tears her family apart. There is precedent for this kind of poetic African film surprising (“Night of the Kings”) but I think the film was miss out.
OUT OF LUCK
10. TUNISIA- “Under the Fig Trees” (Letterboxd: 3.4)
11. TANZANIA- “Tug of War” (Letterboxd: 3.5)
12. UGANDA- "Tembele"
13. TURKEY- “Kerr” (Letterboxd: 3.0)
14. SAUDI ARABIA- “Raven Song” (Letterboxd: 3.5)
East Africa is well-represented by Uganda (for the first time) and Tanzania (for the second). Low-budget thriller "Tembele" is a worthy first choice for Uganda and one of the more pleasant surprises of my film year. Visually, the film is impressive- it shows Uganda in its all its beauty and urban ugliness- despite its minuscule budget. You can almost smell the trash as the lead character searches for goods to sell. Acting is better than expected (especially the wife) and the plot of a lost child is heartbreaking. Ultimately though, this $20,000 film won’t be able to compete with the big boys though it will put Uganda on the map.
Tanzania’s “Tug of War” has played at a number of prominent festivals and has a slightly better chance for its socialist-tinged romance between a Zanzibari revolutionary and an Indian-Tanzanian girl fleeing an arranged marriage.
From the Arab world, come two low-key films. "Under the Fig Trees" is a drama about a day in the life of a group of (mostly female) agricultural workers in Tunisia's fig orchards. "Raven Song" is a a low-key romantic comedy from Saudi Arabia about a man on a quixotic quest to woo a young woman through song. “Fig Trees” is probably too small (and will suffer comparisons with the similar Spanish submission) while “Raven Song” is one of the most obscure films on the list. Due to premiere in 2023, it was one of the final films announced.
Last is Turkey’s “Kerr”, a psychological thriller about a witness to a murder who becomes trapped in a small town. It looks really good but reviews haven’t been as strong as the other films on the list.
NO CHANCE
15. CAMEROON- “Planter’s Plantation”
16. KENYA- “TeraStorm”
It’s wonderful to have films from sub-Saharan Africa here
and I look forward to seeing these unusual entries (well….Cameroon anyway). However, they won’t be
competitive. Cameroon has
selected a strange little musical drama called “Planter’s Plantation”, about a
woman trying to safeguard the land she inherited from her father. Kenya has
made a more unusual choice, selecting a computer-generated animation about
African superheroes. The animation looks quite cool, but this is not the sort
of film that is honored here. I imagine the Kenyan Academy wanted to highlight
the young director as a source of talent.
Now the Statistics:
Who’s Missing?: Most of the African countries have
only sent films once or twice….But there are two major absences from Africa,
namely NIGERIA and SOUTH AFRICA. Nigeria’s committee received
three submissions (including one, “Elesin Oba” that got a Toronto Film Festival
premiere), but their committee stubbornly refused to send a film. After
Nigerian filmmakers complained to AMPAS, the Academy made a rare exception,
asking them to reconsider and giving them a one-week extension. But the
selection committee head- Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi- took umbrage and stubbornly told
the committee to vote on “whether to uphold the original decision” instead of asking
them to revote for one of the three submitted films. South Africa, which has
submitted films every year since 2008 and usually sends serious contender, mysteriously
launched a call for submissions and then failed to send anything. Zambia also
promised to send a film for the first time this year, but they didn’t.
From the Middle East, the only major absence is EGYPT, which
shortlisted five films and then stupidly voted (like Nigeria) to send none of
them. While none of the five Egyptian films likely would have been nominated,
they all could have used the publicity generated by the Oscar submission.
Genres: A few countries have sent genre films- we have an anime from Kenya, some sort of a musical from Cameroon, and comedy-dramas from Palestine and Saudi Arabia.
I’ve Already Seen: Only Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Uganda. But
I still have to watch Jordan on Netflix.
Number I Predicted Correctly: Technically only 5- Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tanzania- but I think I get credit for 7, as my predictions for Egypt and Nigeria did in fact get the largest numbers of votes from their grouchy selection committees, which ended up sending no films.
Film I’m Most Excited To See: “The Blue Caftan” from Morocco
Big Three Festivals:
·
Cannes- Algeria, Morocco (FIPRESCI Award,
UCR), Palestine (Best Screenplay, UCR), Tunisia
·
Berlin- Lebanon
·
Venice- Iran (Best Film, Venice Horizons)
Women Directors- Six!
(including 5 of the 8 Arab directors!) Joana Hadjithomas (Lebanon), Maha Haj
(Palestine), Orit Fouks Rotem (Israel), Darin J. Sallam (Jordan), Erige Sehiri
(Tunisia) and Maryam Touzani (Morocco)
Oldest and Youngest Directors- Rachid Bouchareb (Algeria)
is 69 while Dingha Young Eystein (Cameroon) is 30.
Languages Represented- Almost half (6) of the 16
films are in Arabic, while two are in Swahili. The other eight are in Farsi,
French (Algeria), Hebrew, Kurdish, Luganda, Turkish, Wolof and, thanks to the
2020 rule change, Pidgin English (Cameroon).
How Many Have a Chance at the Shortlist?- A lot of
dark horses in this group….Maybe 6 or 7?
Most Likely to Get Shortlisted for the First Time- Iraq
Buzziest Films: It’s a quiet group but probably
Morocco’s “Blue Caftan”.
Letterboxd Ratings (as of 6 December 2022): Best: Morocco (3.8), Worst: Turkey
(3.0) (but Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda aren’t included)
Controversies and Changes: The biggest controversy
(addressed earlier) was Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi’s hot-headed refusal to send a Nigerian
film to the Oscars.
Also, Jordanian
filmmakers have claimed that Israel has launched a government-led campaign to
get the film pulled from Netflix, and the Israeli Finance Minister has
threatened Israeli cinemas that show the film.
Oscar History: This
is the seventh or eighth time that Rachid Bouchareb has represented Algeria
(there is some confusion as to whether “London River” was submitted or not) and
he’s gunning for his fourth Oscar nomination (following “Days of Glory”,
“Outside the Law” and the dismal “Dust of Life” which somehow got nominated in
a very weak year).
Three other directors are here a second time- Shawkat Amin
Korki (Iraq; “Memories on Stone”; 2015), Maryam Touzani (Morocco; “Adam”; 2019)
and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Lebanon, “Around the Pink House”;
1999).
Most Notable Omissions:
The most notable omission is “Leila’s Brothers” (Iran) which was banned in Iran after winning the 2022 FIPRESCI award at Cannes. Apparently, the filmmakers didn’t ask for Iranian government permission to enter the festival (which only dictatorships require).
I was even more surprised by the absence of “The Alleys” (Jordan)
an acclaimed film by the screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated “Theeb”.
Sometimes an underdog country has the bad luck to have two great
films come out in one year and that certainly happened to Pakistan where
“Kamli”, supposedly one of the best films ever to come out of Pakistan, had to
compete against “Joyland”, a critical darling and the first Pakistani film ever
at Cannes. I was also sad to see New
Zealand comedy “Nude Tuesday”- spoken completely in a made-up gibberish
language without subtitles- lose out to “Muru”.
Also absent: “The Last Queen”
(Algeria), “Kankan” (Cameroon), “Our
River, Our Sky” (Iraq), “Karaoke” (Israel), “Death of a Virgin and the Sin of
Not Living” (Lebanon), “Brother’s Keeper” (Turkey), and horror film “Saloum” (Senegal), which I was really hoping to see
here.
Most Famous Faces: No huge international stars here,
but hopefully many cineastes will recognize Lubna Azabal in “Blue Caftan”.
Last Year’s Race: I saw 13 of the 18 films submitted last year.
Two of these were outstanding films- “A Hero” (Iran) and “Let It Be Morning”
(Israel) that should have been nominated. At least two more- “Europa” (Iraq)
and “Gravedigger’s Wife” (A-) should have contended for the shortlist. Rounding out the Top 5: “Heliopolis” (Algeria),
“Amira” (Jordan), “Casablanca Beats” (Morocco) (B+). I also saw “Barakat”
(South Africa; B+), “Lingui” (Chad; B+), “Souad” (Egypt; B), “Costa Brava”
(Lebanon, B-), “Tambour of Retribution” (Saudi Arabia; B-) and “The Stranger”
(Palestine; C+). I couldn’t find the films from Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi and
Tunisia anywhere…..and although the Turkish film is available online, I
couldn’t find the 2 ½ hours to watch it.
